CONFLICTING PLURALISMS IN CARIBBEAN SOCIETY: Christian and non-Christian Views Of The Other

Abstract

The Caribbean region is perhaps the most culturally diverse of world civilizations.  In this cauldron of conflict and creativity are descendants of the First Peoples, (Caribs and Arawaks, among others) African slaves and free persons, Indian indentured workers, Chinese, Portuguese,  Jews, Syrians, Lebanese and Arabs, to name the major groups.  Each sector came here with different philosophical beliefs rooted in their cultural experiences and these have persisted over the centuries despite the deliberate efforts by the European conquerors to impose a Western Christian ontology onto conquered peoples and on later settlers.  Colonialism was not just economic domination; it was equally the imposition of a value system which denigrated anything that was not European and Christian.  In our own time because of their control of the electronic media, these Western values continue to dominate our airspace and our minds.  At the same time, the non-European, non-Christian sections of the heritage continue to seek their space, often in direct opposition to the imposed Western systems.

      This paper will trace the ideological origins of this cultural clash and its continued salience in our own time.  It will trace the growth of the Western, Christian ethic from its early beginnings in Europe to the French Revolution and its separation of the Church from the State.  It will also trace the separate origins and beliefs of non-Christian, non-Western immigrants to the Caribbean.  Among these were the Africans who brought Islam and traditional beliefs such as Shango, Rastafari and syncretic faiths such as Afro-West Baptist belief.  There was also the South Asian connection which brought Hinduism and South Asian Islam.  During the 20^th century and even in the early twentieth -first century, other versions of non-Christian beliefs were added from North America and the Middle East, adding to the complexity of Caribbean religiosity.  The paper will end with an advocacy for a deeper intra-Caribbean appreciation of the religious Other in a predominantly Western Judeo-Christian environment so that many of the tensions which now exist can come closer to a peaceful resolution